Tobacco retailers in the Gulf region will now be forced to begin importing cigarettes with graphic warnings about the dangers of smoking, after its approval by the 6 Gulf countries in a bid to start pushing customers to quit smoking.

Yet on this day, there is little of the buzz one would expect of a Chinese assembly plant. The turmoil in much of the Middle East, the key market, has seen orders halve, and the company's owner, Luo Weiguo, hopes for stability in the Arab world and a rec

"The magnitude of tobacco consumption is a huge issue," said Prof Tawfik Khoja, the director general of the Executive Board of the GCC Health Ministers' Council. He was speaking at the opening day of the 14th Gulf Symposium on Tobacco Control.